The bodies of a merengue star, a baseball player, and other victims killed in a cement roof collapsing at a popular Dominican nightclub were buried on Thursday. Authorities had stopped the search for the dead after the death toll reached 221.

In black and white, mourners poured into Santo Domingo’s National Theater where Rubby Perez’s body lay in a coffin. Perez was performing at the Jet Set Club in Santo Domingo early on Tuesday morning when the roof collapsed. Dust began to fall from the ceiling.

President Luis Abinader and First Lady Raquel Arbaje were present at the theater for a few minutes and stood by Perez’s casket. As a recording was played of Perez singing his national anthem, some mourners were in tears. Juan Luis Guerra, a renowned Dominican musician, was also present to pay his respects.

Perez, aged 69, turned to music when a car crash prevented him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Perez was best known for his hits “Volvere”, which he performed with Wilfrido Varigas’s Orchestra, and “Buscando tus besos”, as a soloist.

After a five-hour memorial, mourners released white balloons and sang “Volvere” spontaneously. One woman placed her hand on her heart as she wept.

Zulinka Perez said at the cemetery: “I knew that he was loved, but I had never imagined what this would be like.”

Heavy equipment has begun to remove from the Jet Set site, just blocks away from the memorial dedicated to Perez. Rescue crews have also packed their equipment.

A group of prosecutors also arrived.

The cause of the collapse is not yet known, nor when the building’s last inspection was. The government said that it would launch an investigation, and the owners of the club are cooperating with authorities.

Juan Manuel Mendez cried as he spoke to reporters.

“Thank you, God, because today we accomplished the most difficult task I’ve had in 20 years,” he said, moving the microphone away from his face as he cried. Other officials patted him on the back as he continued, “Please forgive me,” before passing the microphone to an army official.

Officials reported that 189 people had been rescued from the rubble alive. Over 200 people were injured. Of those, 23 are still in hospital, and eight of them are in critical condition.

Victor Atallah, Health Minister, stated that “if the trauma is too severe, there’s not much time” to save patients who are in this condition. According to him and other doctors, some of the victims suffered fractures in the skull, the femur, or the pelvis.

The slow drip-drip of information from hospitals and the forensic institute of the country has frustrated many people who have waited anxiously for news about their loved ones.

Authorities said that at least 146 bodies had been identified.

Maria Luisa Taveras said to TV station Noticias SIN that she was searching for her sister.

She said with a broken voice, “We’ve been everywhere they told us.”

Taveras explained that the family is spread out with a relative at each hospital as well as the National Institute of Forensic Pathology. The smell was unbearable as dozens of people, many wearing masks, waited for the bodies of their loved ones at the Institute of Forensic Pathology on Thursday.

“The odor is unbearable,” said Wendy Sosa, who has been waiting since Wednesday morning for the body of her cousin, 61-year-old Nilka Curiel González. Sosa said, “The situation there was chaotic, and officials had to set up a refrigerated container to handle the volume of bodies being delivered.”

She wept when she described her cousin’s graciousness, authenticity, and “very empathetic.”

Octavio Cruz, former MLB player Nelson Cruz, and Tony Enrique Blanco Cabrera are among the victims identified to date. Nelsy Cruz is the governor of Montecristi in the northwest province.

Dotel was interred in Santo Domingo on Thursday. David Ortiz (formerly of the Boston Red Sox) and other Hall of Famers attended his wake in Boston on Wednesday. Ortiz stated that the sheer number of people attending Dotel’s funeral spoke volumes.

Ortiz said to reporters, “He was someone whom everyone loved, and it’s hard.”

Pedro Martinez, a member of the MLB Hall of Fame, attended another funeral on Thursday.

“There are no words to describe the pain we are all feeling,” said Martínez, adding that he knew more than 50 of those who died. “Life is but a breath.”

A retired UN official, saxophonist Luis Solis who was on stage when the roof collapsed, fashion designer Martin Polanco from New York, the son and daughter in law of the minister of Public Works, the brother of Vice Minister of Youth, and three employees of Grupo Popular – a financial services firm – including the president of AFP Popular Bank, and his wife – were also killed.

Haina is Rubby Perez’s hometown, located just southwest of Santo Domingo.

The Governor held a community wake. He set up 10 coffin stands under a banner reading: “Haina bids her beloved children farewell with immense sadness.”

Juancho Guillen was among the mourners. He lost his wife just three months before and had three siblings and a brother-in-law who died in Jet Set.

He told Noticias SIN, “Our family is in shock and is devastated. We are also practically dead.”